1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to a system for dispensing a customised serving. More particularly, it relates to a system that has stored ingredients, a serving preparation and dispensing facility and is programmed to dispense a serving customised to a user's preferences.
2. Background Art
WO01/12036 describes a device for dispensing customised coffee or tea beverages. The beverages are prepared from ingredients stored within the device. The device has a customer database. It is programmed to offer beverage choices, through a customer interface to a customer, based on past selections made by that customer together with choices made by the customer at the time of purchase.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,510,430 there is described an internet based system for compiling a customised nutrient formulation. This is done by interrogating the customer with health questions. The recommendation finally accepted by the customer at the end of the interrogation is the customised nutrient formulation. This then forms the basis for the customer to order a nutrient supplement having that formulation. The system itself does not prepare a supplement from stored ingredients.
A nutrition dispenser is described in WO03/056493 wherein a database accumulates information about the health and food intake of an individual. When a customer requests a nutrient or medical dose, the controller of the device makes decisions according to the past health and food-intake behaviour and the customer's current health status in the selection of the ingredients making up the nutritional dose. It then prepares and dispenses the optimised dose.
In US 2004/0238555 there is described a sandwich vending machine. In this machine, the controller is programmed to control all of the sandwich making and delivery functions. The customer is able to specify the type of sandwich through a customer interface. Customer choice is limited to predetermined sandwich types that the device is able to prepare.
Froseth in US2002/0004749 discloses a very general food product customisation system. This system does not teach how to prepare food products from a limited set of ingredients located at the point of sale (self contained vending machine). Froseth does not disclose algorithms to resolve ingredient or nutritional conflicts. Froseth does not disclose how to deal with anonymous users in terms of catering to their nutritional desires, tastes and health needs in a way that is unique to each customer.
It is an object of at least one embodiment of the invention to provide a customised serving preparation and dispensing system which allows for customer interaction in selecting a customised serving according to their tastes while preserving their anonymity.